I Think My Plants Are Screaming

I was doing a little “gardening” today in my front yard, and for a second I imagined what it must be like from a plant’s point of view. Not just any plants – MY plants. Every time I come out to visit them, they have four choices – small gardening spade, pruning scissors, saw or shovel. I don’t think they mind the spade or the scissors, but they must scream at the sight of the saw or the shovel. Poor things.

When we bought our house 5 years ago, it had been rented out for the 12 years prior to that. Unkempt, mistreated, crowded and unloved – my garden needed a total overhaul – but first I had to get to it through all the weeds. Some plants didn’t make it – the crab-apple trees with the huge thorns had to go, along with a good chunk of the raspberries that had taken over half the lawn. The fuschia rose bush stayed, the pink phlox, the orange lilies and the solitary purple amoryllis.

And the lilac trees – I think we finally have an understanding. They’ve seen me come out with a saw, and use it, and they’ve thrived from the “pruning” (can you call it pruning when you use a saw?). I’ve left some of those glorious plants to grow into tall trees and some will have to make do as small bushes.

The rose bush constantly sees my scissors, yet it still thinks it can get the upper hand – rebellious, stubborn bush that it is.

The poor amoryllis was quite content to grow its solitary flower this year, basking in the knowledge that it’s my husband’s favourite flower, but sadly it wasn’t my scissors, shovel, saw or spade that caused the pretty flower to meet its fate – instead it was a frisbee, thrown in good fun by my oldest son, that made that particular plant scream. We tried to save the precious flower by putting it in water, but its early end was inevitable.

Today I came out with the shovel. And I used it on my pink phlox. They were smack-dab in the middle of the lawn, and people were always tripping over them as they tried to play around the growing mass of pink. So I moved them beside the rose bush – hopefully the pink hues will blend together nicely and harmony will reside in my garden.

I hope that’s it for the shovel and the saw. I hope my plants don’t have to scream anymore. I hope to just enjoy my garden, add a few more treasures this year and next, and give my plants a safe place to call home. They really have given me some wonderful sights and smells these past 5 years!

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3 comments

Yep, our apple tree’s a gonner. Your Dad and Uncle Robert “pruned” it to death the first year here. They hacked it to death actually! It was never the same after that. We’ve taken a liking to Dogwoods lately. They grow anywhere and fast and have a beautiful canopy.
Love Ya,
Mum

The last apple tree in our yard saw its end last week… from years of overgrowth and not being pruned before we moved in… way too huge and heavy with apples and resulting breaking branches, bug and bee infested rotting apples… apparently there used to be at least 5 apple trees in our yard years ago… it was down to 2 fruit-bearing trees and one fungus filled apple bearing Garfield birdhouses when we moved in 3 years ago (yep… sawed that one down pretty quickly!) Sad, but that’s what happens when plants and trees don’t get tended to! (okay, I’m better at tending to the plants in our yard… but our poor Beta fish are suffering from neglect since the spring… yikes!!)